Lots of meta-comedy writing and callbacks to earlier seasons. Certainly follows through on the depravity. That limo scene was borderline nightmarish. That poor woman just trapped in those awful vinyl seats. Reminded me of the nosebleed scene in "Drag Me To Hell,", where the chick's at her job and it sprays out of her face, the walls are all pastel- colored so the redness of the blood really stands out.
Good to see that the writers are steeped in the lore and understand the characters enough to keep grinding out the proper scenarios. The cast is all in top form (well.... yeah). Some of the biggest laughs are just reaction shots (Dee's is great) of characters looking stunned and incredulous. There's still chemistry. I agree that the Roxy character was written out too soon. But there's still the whole satellite cast yet to come this season.
Overall, I'm glad it's back and that everyone is working tirelessly to keep the show moving forward, even if it is only to bring a vision of epic depravity to fruition. I miss the ingenious writing and direction of an episode like "Mac Bangs Dennis's Mom", or any of Season 2, back when they wrote and directed everything.
Still, I'd rather see them do what they do best through a parade of half-baked scenarios than not have it around at all.